PUBLIC BENEFITS: TANF


The center focuses on health care access, immigrants' access to services, food and nutrition, the state's eligibility and enrollment system, and TANF.

Recent TANF Publications

Texas and the TANF Block Grant (11/11/2005)
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant is the sixth largest source of federal funds in the Texas state budget. TANF is second only to Medicaid in the support it provides for state health and human services. This Policy Brief analyzes Texas’ fiscal and policy choices regarding TANF, in light of pending federal reauthorization and mounting federal deficits.

Federal Court of Appeals: TWC Violated Federal Law by Rewriting Rules to Terminate Poor Mothers’ Medicaid (05/2/2005)
On Friday, April 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously affirmed U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks’ earlier ruling that the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) violated federal law by adopting regulations to cut off health care to poor mothers in the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families work program, called the Choices program. As long as the women meet work requirements, the Circuit found, they are entitled to Medicaid. A copy of the opinion is attached.

Combined Impact of Medically Needy Cut and TANF Sanctions: Medicaid Coverage of Parents in Poverty has Dropped by 30 Percent with 78th Legislature’s Changes (04/25/2005)
Absent the changes enacted by the 78th Legislature (i.e., elimination of Medically Needy coverage for impoverished parents, and the new Medicaid and full-family sanctions in TANF), we would expect AT LEAST 44,900 more parents to be covered in FY 2005. (This is a conservative estimate, because it does not attempt to capture the GROWTH in overage above 2003 levels that might have occurred without the cuts and TANF policy changes.)

What's Happening with TANF Caseloads: Strict Rules Force Thousands of Kids Off the Rolls (03/9/2005)
This Policy Page analyzes the TANF caseload decline and the impact of strict sanction policies on program recipients and recommends a more reasonable sanction policy that helps rather than hurts poor children.

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